Ruling class canâ€™t rescue Nigeria from poverty, says Fashina

By Funmi Komolafe & Victor Ahiuma-Young
ACTIVIST and former President of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr. Dipo Fashina, yesterday in Lagos, declared that the ruling class had no capacity to rescue the Nigeria from poverty.

Fashina, who is also the Co-Chairman of Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO), spoke while delivering a paper on â€œLabour and Politics: The Challenges of Social Transformation of Nigeria,â€Â at the 13th annual Kolagbodi memorial lecture, organised by Dr. M. E. Kolagbodi Memorial Foundation (KMF), in conjunction with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES).

He lamented that the ruling class had no idea on how to govern the country, but depended on policiesÂ and programmes formulated by the World Bank, an institution set up by the Western world to promote the dominance of capitalism in the world.

Fashina faulted the increasing privatisation of public enterprises in the country and the erroneous belief that the private sector was a better manager of resources and institutions, saying recent revelations in the nationâ€™s banking sector were a pointer that the private sector could not be trusted.

He argued that the private sector was about greed andÂ personal aggrandizement that could not work for common good.

According to him: â€œThe ruling class has been boasting of the private sector, especially the banking sector. What are we seeing in the banks now are fraud and corruption. This is to say that the private sector is so greedy and cannot be trusted to work for a common good.â€